Release Anniversary: GMK – All Monsters Attack!

Greetings, Kaiju Lovers!

Ye Olde Dragon here, With the otherToho Tokusatsu (Japanese live effects) film to be released in the month of November. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), released on the same day as the original GOJIRA (1954) – November 3. On this day in 2001, Toho released the third Godzilla film of the “Millennium Era” – GOJIRA, MOSURA, KINGU GHIDORAH: DAI KAIJU SOKOGEKI a.k.a. GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDRAH: ALL MONSTERS ATTACK!

The interesting difference of the Millennium series, was in fact that none of them (save two of them) were connected to each other or any other previous Godzilla film. The basic premise of each film was that Godzilla did in fact attack Japan in 1954, but there was no indication of him until his “return” in each Millennium Era film.

In this offbeat treatment, Godzilla is equated with the spirits of all those killed in the A-Bomb attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their unimaginable rage. Three “Guardian Beasts” rise up after their holy stones are disturbed to defend the world against Godzilla’s threat. The three beasts are: Mothra – the only Toho Kaiju aside from Godzilla to headline its own movie after the Showa Era – Baragon – previously seen in FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD and DESTROY ALL MONSTERS – and in an odd twist, playing a “hero” as opposed being the villain of so many past films, King Ghidrah.